Below is a list of various links to web pages, forum threads, and other online locations that contain (or contained in the past) either admissions or accusations of alt avatar use or shared ‘mule’ avatar use in Entropia Universe. The list also contains a few links related to the issue of Mindark and Planet Partners use of avatars in Entropia Universe, which is seen by some as giving certain avatars an unfair advantage through the use of insider information. Internet Archive Links, screen prints, or youtube video copies of some of the linked pages are listed below in case the original linked page potentially could be deleted or altered at some point in time removing existence of the original admission or accusation.

Please note that this is a ‘living document’ and may be edited in the future as new admissions or accusations are located in forums, websites, and other online places, or as older examples are archived with screen prints, etc.

Tina “Island Girl” Leiu, the avatar of my late fiance Tina Leiu, logged off for the last time in the VIP Dance floor of Club NEVERDIE… A fitting exit given that Tina provided the vocals for Spankox’s worldwide smash hit Dance anthem “To the Club”

I have enjoyed in the last 2 years keeping Island Girl active, it always felt like a way to cheat death, however even Death finds a way to catch up with you in Virtual Reality as I have been formally notified that it is deemed that my continued use of Island Girls avatar is in Violation of Mindarks’ prohibition of the use of Multiple Avatars and the transference of an Avatar to another Person.

I respect the purpose behind Mindarks policies, I know I would not like to see this Avatar fall into the Wrong hands and so off she goes… To the big Club in the Sky… Club NEVERDIE.

IF Mindark Choose to make public the specifics of this agreement, then that is up to them.

In general though What that means as far as I understand it regarding ROCKtropia and NEVERDIE Studios is that all of our Private Avatars must cease to engage in all End User Game Play activities, excluding perhaps logging in to manage pre-exisiting assets, until such time that employment is terminated.

1) He got a temporary ban for abusing the auction 101 bug – an item on auction could get no more than 101 bids, so by bidding against yourself 101 times with 1 ped increments you could get items for cheap without anyone having the option to overbid you.

2) Around that time Qetesh emerged and became the owner of all Akoz’s land areas. Seemed like it was a way to keep his assets if his first Avatar gets banned. Since then he has been publicly using both avatars to conduct business even though multiple accounts are formally not allowed.

* He still has my respect for the insane killing spree ATH with his axe 😀 … I just wouldn’t go into any business adventures with someone who operates on the borderline of the game rules.

I agree that there should be in-game options for co-ownership. The CLD system is basically a step in this direction.

There are many many people with multiple avatars. All created for many many reasons.
Yes, we all know that the MA says they should not. But no-one at MA can prove anything. As for Akoz and Qetesh, old news and probably done to protect assets etc.
What is your point?

There is also discussion on this page of the in-game banks having alt avatars ‘own’ them instead of the individuals behind the avatars that ‘won’ the bank deeds in an auction.Internet Archive Link

As far as I know it´s not allowed !!
I have 3 avatars here at my home, but one belongs to my daughter (17) and the other one is my son (15).
And as long as they are under 18 they have no rights to do any trades in EU without my OK and that’s is also according to the laws in Sweden.
So in that case multiple accounts from one and the same IP is OK, however they also have different mails on the accounts.

I know that some shops share the same avatar to run the shop.. hmm is that fair ??? up to 3 or 4 pps share that avatar to run the shops…is that fair

In that case I would say …nooo and it violates the Eula and it should not be allowed, and it´s a so called uber soc running the shop…is that fair ??

I know one so called uber soc running one hangar with extra avatars, they use them only for the purpose to be able to fly the ships on demand and they don’t have to move their own avas for the flight.
Hmmm is that fair

Bottom line ..you know all this ..you don’t need screens for it, it´s all in MA´s logs .
And if you have reduced flight tickets, reduced prices om clothes armors but you have not used the offers…would you report it …fair not fair ??

Each to their own, though I would not call at least 2+ years of participation and/or break between alts Sparkz > Viper > DCB to be defined as regularly. Then again what is irregular to one maybe regular to another

Correct procedure is once you indefinitely close an account through MindArk support you must create a new one to start participating again in Entropia Universe; I followed form in closing forum accounts where applicable once a new avatar ingame was created.

So Firesparkz Sparkz Lavawalker and Shadowsniper Viper Viperstrike should be closed accounts even if some systems in Entropia Universe, such as outdated friends lists, outdated society terminals, etc. may say otherwise, as they tend to do with some closed avatar accounts since Mindark appears to want to inflate artificially it’s count on avatars in use in the virtual universe. I believe Dynamic DCB-Trading-Co Carebear is taking the right path that many using more than one avatar over the years may not be when they keep multiple avatars open and active.Internet Archive Link

Yes, Viperstrike is a closed account ingame and on forums with reference to Entropia due to it being used in other games of interest. I did not withdraw, I trashed and gave away ~ 4K+ USD worth of PED/Items and skill. But at the end of the day, it mattered little. It is only money after all. Not happiness in what you are doing.

Whether or not any of that is true or not can only be verified by Mindark and/or Dynamic DCB-Trading-Co Carebear. I don’t personally think that this guy is a scammer, especially since he gave away quite a few peds related to an initiative he wanted to start with a planet partner. He seems to be a pretty likeable guy based on the what I’ve read from him on forums and in game, but the fact that he is using alts regularly and Mindark is allowing that type of thing to happen with his actions (and the actions of others doing similarly) seems to go against Mindark’s promise that “Both Planet Partners and the participants on the planets should always feel safe in their endeavors in Entropia Universe.”Internet Archive Link

While I don’t think there is anything ‘wrong’ with this use of secondary avatars for testing things out, it just goes to show you how much the planet partners don’t care about allowing multiple avatars to exist in this ‘real cash economy’ where each avatar in game is supposed to be a unique individual with a unique player behind them.

When Planet Partners just willy nilly allow reporters to create secondary avatars like this it really gives a bad example to the community at large that this type of thing is perfectly ok and acceptable. After all if the higher ups can do it, why can’t I too?!?… so multiple avatars appear to be all over the game. I hear rumors that some folks even set up multiple avatars at spots like the beer garden and oil rigs on multiple planets so that they can just farm away at the freebies. It’s sad but seems to be somewhat true. Of course only the planet partners and/or Mindark can verify this with IP tracking, but since that is not something they seem to care about, nothing ever gets done about the situation, and it just continues to get worse over time as more planets are opened up, giving more alt avatars more playgrounds to play in as they errode the virtual economy.Internet Archive Link

http://www.entropiaplanets.com/threads/they-walk-amongst-us.11222/Description/Summary:
January 13, 2014 posting on EntropiaPlanets by MS9 about the types of Alt Avatars that Mindark allows. Of particular interest is MS9’s admission that she allowed her alt avatar to graduate. That is particular interesting because when an avatar graduates in Entropia Universe the mentor of the graduate is given a a somewhat ‘rare’ item at the time of the graduation. In a game based on a ‘real cash economy’ that is tied to the US Dollar in a 10:1 ratio, this type of activity by Planet Partners appears to be something that is giving certain Mentor Avatars a bit of an unfair advantage vs other avatars in game who don’t have Planet Partner avatars under their discipleship.Internet Archive Link

Via an accidental in game chat admission related to a recent (2017) Monrian forum posting it was discovered that the individual behind the avatar “Monria Fleet Manager” is the same individual running “Dark Moon Enigma” which is Mindstar’s 9 ‘official Planet Avatar’s for Monria… so She’s using one avatar to move around on the Monrian mothership from planet to planet while DME stays put on Monria in the mean time I suspect.

Hardwrathhttp://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?263058-Tinfoil-Copter-Hat&p=3268373&viewfull=1#post3268373Description/Summary:
June 29, 2014 Post on Planetcalypsoforum where Hardwrath discusses his use of alts including Max HardWrath Mayhem (his main avatar), Hard-X-Wrath (an alt avatar that was used to run a second society), and The Dice Man (an alt that he used with Mindark to do what sounds like a form of entrapment on another avatar). Hardwrath claims that when he used alt avatars Mindark was ok with that type of use of alts per eula and tos. However, all documentation that I have seen from Mindark from that timeframe indicates otherwise.Internet Archive Link

Hardwrath claims that his use of alts was within the terms of service and eula, and that Mindark was aware of all of these uses, and that Mindark allowed everyone to have alts back when he originally was using alts. However, I have yet to see any documented proof that Mindark was ok with anyone using alts and sharing gold cards. Most support ticket responses that I personally have seen and that others have posted on forums and various websites over the years indicates quite the opposite stance, and that Mindark wants everyone only using one avatar,even way back in 2005.

I do not think Hardwrath used alts to scam via auctions etc. However, I do believe he used strong arm tactics in Societies through his use of alts, which should be just as much of a violation of eula and terms of service as any monetary scamming.Additionally, there was one point in time when he had borrowed a lot of peds (I’m not sure on exact details but I think it was close to 20k Ped worth if I remember correctly) from various avatars to trade with and then logged out for over a year or so with those peds still sitting on his pedcard claiming that his laptop was broken and that he had lost a job in real life during the time he did not login. He did ultimately come back and pay back the majority of those borrowed peds to most involved in that trust scam. That particular scam did not involve the use of alts, but it does call in to question his morality in my book since he was able to log in to some forums during the time that he supposedly had no laptop.

Sadly, and unfortunately, In one support ticket on this very topic Mindark admitted that it can’t really do much about about any alt avatars created prior to 2008. The support ticket reads:

Hi,
Thank you for your inquiry and please accept my apologies for the delay in my reply. I would like to thank you also for your link, but, unfortunately we have not bee able to confirm in our logs that the accont has been shared in previous years as the oldest logon logs from our participants are from 2008. However, please rest assured that appropriate action will be taken.

We are committed to make Entropia Universe an enjoyable experience for all and we thank you for helping us reach that goal.
Kind regards,
Tezla | Planet Calypso Support.

Before I got that support response, I got the following horrible one, which seems to indicate that Mindark’s support team is really fairly clueless when it comes to dealing with scams and alt account use going on in their servers, even when all details about such activities are reported to them with clear details outlined:

Hi,
Thank you very much for the detailed information. However, we are unsure of what exactly do you want us to do with it. Please let us know if there’s something we can do to help you.
Kind regards,
Entropia Universe Support

Below two Youtube links are archived versions of society threads on pcf that have been deleted or altered since the time that they were originally created and the videos were recorded.http://youtu.be/EeYx1Vta_GY – Hardwrath’s Pause threadhttp://youtu.be/PCTh05Gt4dY – results thread that was a response to the pause thread. Lots of the ‘real’ truths about Hardwrath’s multiple avatar appear to be in there (discussion of running multiple societies with different avatars in a heavy handed manner back in 2005 or so)

http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?212743-Is-your-avatar-s-name-on-this-list-(Apology)&highlight=patriots – Patriot’s List Apology Thread.
This is related somewhat to Hardwrath because the Patriots list was originally a copy of the NBK list during the time that Hardwrath was the leader of the NBK (running those alt avatars). I believe that one of the lists was a “do not trade with this guy” type of list and the other one was a Kill on Site type of list that was used to harass various individuals in game via killing them any time they were found by NBK or Patriots upper leadership in a pvp zone or by running mob trains on them in non-pvp zones, etc. I don’t know if those hit lists still exist or not, but it’s likely that they do?… Running mob trains continuously on others in game that were gathered together to have ‘parties’ is definitely a form of harassment that is likely against the terms of use. It is sad that Mindark allows this type of cyberbullying to regularly occur on their servers.

1. Statement of Purpose. This fund will be maintained for the common good of the members of SynerGen. The fund will acquire and hold virtual assets for the use and benefit of society members. The fund will not engage in business enterprises except as authorized in this document.

2. Governance. The members of the Expedition Advisor tier will serve as the Board of Trustees of this fund and will establish policies for the operation of the fund. The Board of Trustees may appoint one or more managers and may delegate authority to the managers.

3. Eligibility to Participate. All members of SynerGen in the Senior Traveler tier and above may fully participate in this fund. The Board of Trustees may allow for limited participation by society Travelers.

4. Custody of Fund Assets. The avatar known as “Synergy SynerGen Genesis” will hold all fund assets. Access to the “Synergy SynerGen Genesis” account will be given only to members of the Board of Trustees and managers authorized by the Board of Trustees.

5. Contributions to the Fund.

a. Everyone is welcome to make unrestricted contributions to the fund. Unrestricted contributions may be in the form of PEDs or virtual assets.
b. A donor may specify that a contribution be used for a specific purpose. For example, a donor may specify that a robot beacon be used for a society beacon run.
c. A member of the society may lend an asset to the fund. For example, a member may lend an estate, set of armor, weapon, blueprint or other asset to the fund for a given period of time. In such event the member assumes the risk of loss of the asset. The fund and its

Board of Trustees will not be liable in the event the asset is lost because of the default or misconduct of a society member or for any other reason beyond the control of the Board of Trustees.

6. Use of Fund Assets. The Board of Trustees may use the assets of the fund for the following purposes. This list is non-exclusive.

a. Assets of the fund may be loaned to members of SynerGen for agreed periods of time. The period of time may be limited for assets in popular demand. The member will repair all decay to the assets resulting from the member’s use. For limited assets that cannot be repaired the member will reimburse the fund for decay plus markup on the decay. Monthly auction average will be used to calculate decay.

The member may not transfer the asset to any other avatar without the prior consent of the fund manager or the Board of Trustees.

b. Funds permitting, each Traveler may be provided with a welcome kit consisting of armor, weapon, ammunition and FAP.

c. Assets of the fund may be used for society team activities such as team hunts. If the fund provides ammunition for a team hunt, all loot dropped during the team hunt will be donated to the fund as an unrestricted contribution. In such event, team members will not be required to reimburse the fund for the ammunition. If the team obtains a global or HOF the Board of Trustees will reward the team with 10% of the value of any global and 25% of the value of any HOF.

d. Assets of the fund may be used for special activities and events. An example of a special activity would be a society hunt where the society provides the ammunition and the participants keep all loot.

7. Conducting Business. This fund is a benefit fund and will not engage in any business activity. The following activities will not be

prohibited by this restriction:
a. Lending assets to society members and receiving compensation for the use or depreciation of the assets.
b. Purchase of assets that promote the purpose of the fund.
c. Sale of assets that do not promote the purpose of the fund.
d. Purchase of investment shares in the SynerGen Enterprise Fund.
8. MindArk EULA. This fund will operate in full compliance with the MindArk End User License Agreement.

9. Modification of this Document. This document may be amended from time to time by the Board of Trustees. All members of the society will be given notice and reasonable opportunity to comment on any proposed amendment. Notice will be not less than three days. Notice will be given by email and posting on the society web site.

10. Termination of the Society or the Fund. Upon the termination of the society or of this fund, the board of trustees will distribute the assets of the fund in a fair and equitable manner.

There was no screen print or internet archive of this particular site done unfortunately.

Community Advisor Programhttp://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?199935-Community-Adviser-Program&p=2590427&viewfull=1#post2590427Description/Summary:
October 25, 2010 thread on Planetcalypsoforum about the Community Advisor Program. This was a temporary program that existed in 2010 that allowed certain individuals in the community to participate as community advisers through the use of alt avatars that existed only in the “Calypso Gateway,” an entry point for new avatars. This program was eventually discontinued. It is my belief that even though the program was a good idea, it is probably a good thing that it was discontinued since it seemed to give the masses the idea that it is ok to have more than one avatar since the community advisers had them.Internet Archive Link

The baby avatar could be controlled both by the two avatars. This would allow a legitimate way of owning a secondary avatar so the normal decent players that don’t cheat can compete with “cheaters” in this game who may have a secondary avatar.

Should NEVERDIE be banned?
I’d like to preface this post by saying that I am about 300ml into a bottle of scotch

I was dreaming tonight about how cool it would be to own/operate a planet. All the awesome ideas I have, being able to get rich, having some inside knowledge about the mechanics of EU….. then I stopped and thought ” I don’t want a planet if it means I can’t play anymore. Surely I wouldn’t be allowed to play if I had knowledge before hand of what would drop what on my planet. I could manipulate the economy of my entire planet. Even if my Mandu avatar were not the one playing.

It wasn’t long before my thoughts moved to NEVERDIE. Jon has been closely involved in the development of 2 planets (some would argue 3). Should he be allowed to participate in the mechanics of this game?

At what point are you too involved in the universe to participate. I’ve heard that MindArk employees are required to play, but cannot deposit or withdraw. That makes sense. But what must you do to be an employee. File Taxes? Empty Garbages? Create two planets?

Anyway… thought I would ask the community. Should people so close to the core of the game be allowed to interact with the mechanics of it?

Edit:
Thought I should add; I have nothing against ND, nor do I begrudge him making money here. I just thought a debate should be had about when a person is too close to the core of the game to play it.

Edit 2:
After having read the replies here, and in the sober light of Monday, I would like to rephrase slightly my question:

When does the potential damage to EU become so great, a person must remove themselves, or be removed.

I don’t really believe that ND has or will cheat. But just imagine:
On launch day, Jon is showing a reporter around Next Island. A mob attacks the reporter, and ND courteously kills it, and hits an ATH loot with 3 UL items, one of which is unique. Imagine the outrage!!

Pretty unlikely, sure. But what if. Same as with the contest example in one of the earlier replies. It is less about the possibility of cheating, but the perception of it.

I am sure there is a way for ND to continue his business ventures in EU, and to remove this type of possibility. Give him an Official avatar like Marco’s maybe.

ND is just one very high profile example of the types of situations that MA should be making very sure don’t destroy the reputation of EU at a time that is likely to be the beginning of a new future for it.

Shouldn’t 2nd Avatars be hunted and banned?
Just to spin off the other topic which is a poll about whether its obvious or not….

Personally I think having a 2nd avatar should be tracked my MA and removed…. there are many people who abuse it…. obviously if you craft/mine/hunt with second avatar thats ok since your putting back into the system and it doesn’t matter which avatar you use…. but for those who abuse the extra auction slots and the abuses you can do with multiple trading areas and all other sorts of things that can be abused…. shouldn’t MA step it up to try and stop em?

I know its hard to prove since it could be another family member… but shouldn’t it be obvious when both avatars aren’t active at the same time? Or their activity is maybe handicapped by the fact you cant play two at the same properly….

Should FPC|MA change society terminals so that it kicks out avatars that no longer exist? If an avatar is banned, or removed from the game due to inactivity for a very long period of time, should the society terminal automatically remove the avatar in question from the society list and/or disband the entire society once the avatar in question is removed from the game if the avatar in question was the society founder? The society could still be put back together by existing members if they chose to recreate it, with a new society created date, etc… just not leave the old founder listed if the old founder no longer exists…

To me it seems rather silly to leave the banned or inactive avatars that no longer exist in the society terminal, especially since it’s falsely advertising that the individual in question that no longer exists still exists and/or gives some older societies that have been around a long time some sort of “bragging rights” about how long they’ve been around that they should not be entitled too really… since their leader is no longer there… It’s sort of similar to the problem I have with estate terminals leaving the old estate owners listed as the current owner until the new owner decides to actually claim the place, if they ever do decide to claim it at all… It’s sort of falsely advertising that this great and mighty society founder person is still around… when they just might not be really…

Identifying multiple avatars
Most of the problems about scams seem to involve multiple avatars. Banning them would be a problem where more than one person in a home wanted to play, but we dont need to ban them anyway.
If MA fitted every multiple avatar with an asterisk at the end of the in-game visible name (eg Fin*) it would be obvious to other players at once that they were dealing with a multiple avatar.
They could then decide, for example, whether they wanted to trade or not. Simple for mentors to explain to new players too.
Worth a try?

Operations of Virtual Worlds and Online Games generate enormous amounts of data. For example, in Entropia Universe millions of activities are logged every hour. As for the economy, all economic transactions in Entropia Universe are monitored and possible to track down to one 1 000 000th of one USD. Since all activities in Entropia Universe are based on the same tracking principle as the economic transactions, all activities an avatar takes part in can be tracked with the same accuracy.

http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?28664-Multiple-avatars/page4&p=329895#post329895Description/Summary:
June 20, 2006 posting by Marco Behrman on Planetcalypsoforum (may have been Entropiaforum at the time as the database from ef was moved to pcf?) that was a response to ViagraFalls’s question, “I recall someone telling me there has been a thread where quote by MA was made or quoted saying secondary avatars are officially allowed. Can anyone confirm this, or point me to the thread in question? Thanks.”
Marco’s response states:

EULA and multiple avatars
I recently received an email from MA regarding the fact that I had an avatar about 2-3 years ago that I stopped using. In fact I sent them notice to delete the avatar. The email I received was to the effect that this avatar had not been purged and they were giving me the chance to resurrect it. I submitted a support request on it, to verify that this was in fact from them. They responded that this was a differerent avatar, not my current one, BUT, they then included this statement.

“Please note that running more than one account active at the same time is against the End User License Agreement (EULA). ”

I guess that answers everyones questions about having multiple avatars once and for all. MA support actually stated something clearly.

Unless the name violates the EULA or ToU or you happened to write your real name as your avatar name, we do not change the name of your avatar. The reason for not allowing a change of your avatar name is that you build reputation and trust inside the Entropia Universe by the name of your avatar. To allow this to be changed would undermine confidence in existing avatar relations.

On the topic of using multiple avatars, Mindark’s support team has this to say:

Hi,

No, you are not allowed to have more than one active avatar/account.

Kind regards,
Entropia Universe Support

I may in the future use the Alt Avatar Category in this blog to site some examples of where this type of activity appears to have previously occurred.

It is understandable why some might believe that this type of thing is ok. In many other MMORPGs (Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Games) using multiple characters or ‘toons’ is encouraged, and is in some cases a part of the game itself! In games such as Blizzard’s Diablo game series, Perfectworld’s Neverwinter, DC Universe Online, and similar types of MMOs (Massively Multi-player Online games) the different character classes that you can use simultaneously on one account allow you a challenge. In most MMORPGs it’s fun to switch from being a ‘Tank’ to being a ‘Healer’, ‘Melee DPS’, ‘Ranged DPS’, ‘Buffer Support’, or ‘Controller’. That is because most other MMORPGs other than Entropia have Character Classes. Entropia is a bit different in that it is a ‘classless’ game… that is any avatar in game can take on any role since the skill system is what controls things and it’s open to all, not just certain character types… and what’s more, unlike in most other games, in Entropia you can ‘chip in’ or ‘chip out’ your skills by inserting a skill chip in to your avatar’s brain… allowing you to move skills off of your avatar on to the chips or move the skills off of chips on to your avatar – and then you can can trade those chips to others in game for whatever price you like (usually best to stick with market value listed on auctioneer npcs since that’s the market price, but be aware that that market value price goes up and down all the time, and market manipulators sometimes try to change the price to their liking so they make more money, etc.). In Entropia this is important since the game dollar, the PED – ‘PROJECT ENTROPIA DOLLAR’ is tied to the US DOLLAR in a 10:1 ratio… (There are 100 PECS – Project Entropia Cents in One PED) Since it’s tied to the dollar like that, it is important that each individual only have one avatar so that there’s less potential for scamming, market manipulation, and nefarious activities such as money laundering, etc.

It is my belief that Mindark should stop use of ALTS in Entropia Universe from happening for a number of different reasons. It allows scams to happen due to illusions of trust and identity. It allows certain individuals working together with a mule account to have an unfair advantage vs those who only use one avatar per participant. It allows folks to bypass travel costs between virtual planets in game. It allows for possible market manipulations in a number of different ways.

In the rare cases where Mindark does allow this type of thing legitimately within the tos and eula, it creates a situation where certain individuals are being treated with ‘kiddie gloves’, allowed to do things others or not, or as some in the community put it, ‘Mindark treats some more fairly than others’ in these types of situations, which is why this post is listed under the Unfair Treatment Category in this blog.

The Official Avatar Guidelines lay out the rules for four different types of avatars and what they can and cannot do, but other than the regular EU avatar, which is your personal avatar that you started PE/EU with, all of the others are tagged through coding and activities monitored. The four avatars in question are Incognito (secret), Official (gold star over head), Role Playing (RX Units and any storyline character that will play a key role in the evolution of a planet), and Personal avatars which are not tagged unless there’s a very good reason to be so.

There are also two types of Restricted Accounts … Employee Accounts which are those who are employees of MA, PPs, Marketing Associates, etc., and Demo Accounts used for investors, journalists, and other such individuals in order to show them part, or all of EU during a limited period of time.

The Incognito accounts are used for testing and experiencing the EU platform without revealing they are controlled by an employee, whether it’s MA, PP, Marketing Associates, or others. Also, the avatar name chosen can in no way be connected to MA, PPs, EU organizations or associations, or real life identity. This type of account cannot be used in any public events or anything similar.

The Official accounts are used to participate in game events or for official announcements.

The Role Playing accounts are used to participate in events and play a role, or a character that has significance to a planet’s storyline (Cyrene will eventually do this, and it’s brilliant), but then there are the RX Units on Calypso that interact with the players and get involved with events.

The Private accounts are personal accounts that are registered by the employee before employment. The rule is that once you become Official, or even before your Official avatar is created, you must freeze your personal account and not be able to use it until employment has ended. This is what happened to me, and MS9 was in a cryogenic state until I resigned my position with Cyrene, but then got her back with everything she had prior to being put on hold.

Here are some pertinent bullet points:
employees are absolutely held to and must abide by the terms of the EULA and ToS with the understanding that the accounts are EU accounts and not personal accounts
the account cannot be used to make money, or withdraw money … however, can withdraw only the amount that they have deposited themselves
employees do not have any value or any right of ownership to any value accumulated during the course of operating the avatar
employees are absolutely forbidden to use any type of internal information or know-how obtained during employment, including company secrets in order to increase the value of the account (e.g. collect certain virtual objects that are expected to increase in value due to planned developments in Entropia Universe) or in any way affect the internal virtual economy of Entropia Universe (as mentioned before, these avatars are monitored)
Employees may not trade (meaning private trade and auctions) items or PED/PEC with other end users to make money or affect the virtual economy:
o Employees are not allowed to trade with other end users to obtain unique or rare virtual items.
o Employees are not allowed to trade with other end users to obtain skill chips.
o Employees are not allowed to trade with other end users to transfer skill chips to the end users.
o Employees are not allowed to affect market prices.
o Interacting with other end users in a reasonable trade, based on market value, etc.
o Interacting with other end users in event or competition, where effort and prize is in reasonable relation to each other.
employees can interact with other end users in the usual course of usage of the product including participating in activities mentioned below:
o Trade
o Join team
o Team activity like hunting etc
o Mining
o Chat
o Join society
employees must keep their in-game voice chat set at Push to Talk to prevent revealing any confidential or internal information to the public (participants), and never use real life names
With regard to play money for employees:
employees are allowed to deposit money to their PED Card and withdraw that same amount if they wish
the Planet Partner may choose to make deposits on Employee Entropia Universe Accounts with a maximum of 1000 PED per deposit once a week, to be used by the Employee for participating in Entropia Universe only.
Such a deposit is subject to the following limitations: (1) only the Planet Partner can make deposits to an EU Employee Account; (2) the total value of the PED Card on the Employee’s Account, including any piles of PED and PEC can never exceed the value of 5,000 PEDs; (3) the Planet Partner is responsible for all costs covering the deposits deducted from the planet in-world revenue to an EU Employee Account

There was once a small note from Mindark on the topic about Planet Partners using avatars, but it was not very detailed and gave almost no real information.

However, there’s nothing ‘official’ any ‘real’ and ‘active’ planet partners on the subject out there that has been given to the community other than a subtle hint about things from Rocktropia from a few years back on a web page that no longer really exists except in the internet caches of various search engines that went something like this:

It has been brought to my attention that the Planet Partner Agreement strictly Prohibits Planet Owners or planet Partner Employees from Playing Entropia universe with private Avatars…

IF Mindark Choose to make public the specifics of this agreement, then that is up to them.

In general though What that means as far as I understand it regarding ROCKtropia and NEVERDIE Studios is that all of our Private Avatars must cease to engage in all End User Game Play activities, excluding perhaps logging in to manage pre-exisiting assets, until such time that employment is terminated.

While I think most of the information in comments part of that blog entry are way off from today’s reality in game, it’s interesting to see what the general public thought of Entropia way back in 2007… (and may still today as sometimes these types of perceptions continue to exist for many years? (for example see the eutalk blog from 2013))…

Finkle said…
Don’t you people realize by now that it is Mindark employees doing the reselling/scamming in this game? It is Mindark alone that profits from this game. The “uber” players in the game are the ones that work for Mindark. I have noticed from the beginning how they operate. The day you download this program and get put at Port Atlantis you are immediately approached by employees of Mindark posing as old players. They shuffle you over to the sweat camp and show you how to sweat. You do that until you can’t stand it anymore. Then they buy your sweat or you sell it to some other person for next to nothing, buy yourself a weapon and ammo from the trade terminal, go out and start hunting the animals, only to discover your ammo runs out and weapon breaks without you having made even 1/10 of what you need to repair them and buy more ammo. Then back to sweating, usually people who go through this cycle a couple of time will end up depositing money. The minute you do, scammers flock over and try to steal your money in some way or another. Make no mistake, there are mostly employees of mindark, they know EXACTLY when you deposit, and don’t show their faces until you do. I have watched the tactics they use and see the light. The avatars you meet and put on your friend list are more times than not the SAME employee. Just watch how on your friends list two or three people seem to log out at exactly the same time. Then a minute later when their computer reboots they log back in at the same time, with a slight delay in between. Look at how the same avatars can’t hold up individual conversations with you at the same time, they have a hard time trying to keep up with both conversations. I have actually seen one avatar answer a question that I asked ANOTHER avatar!! The staff of mindark sit around and create accounts all day, scam newbies, manipulate the market, get Hall of Fames to entice you to keep playing, and you are a HUGE TOOL if you play their rigged game. You are better off driving down the street tossing dollars out the window. You stand a much better chance of NOT losing your money than if you play this game. STAY AWAY FROM THIS GAME, DON’T BE A MINDARK TOOL!!!

Transparency can be a good thing in situations like these. However, Mindark is Mindark and it’s business as usual, so it’s likely nothing will ever change on this matter… I wish that that was not the case. Perhaps the new CEO can do something to change history repeating itself as has happened over and over the last few years at Mindark?